Intensive Deck Study Reboot!

Hi all

Well I am starting to break through something with my deck. I have noticed that it is very grounded in it's answers not a lot of follow up questions needed. I am loving that. I am still confused with a few cards but I am hoping they reveal themselves to me eventually.
I am proud of myself for not wanting to run back to RWS this week...
So far so good.
I have yet to get time to sit with Mary Oliver and the deck though perhaps that will be a much bigger project at a later date.
Hope everyone else is still pluggin along with their decks...

Still enjoying my time with the Thoth - it is such a meaty deck. I look forward to spending time with it.

I'll second Flaxen. Am also enjoying the morning time with the Thoth.

Still doing daily draws with the Thoth, and beginning to make more sense of the cards.

After some going back and forth, I decided to post here after all.

I'll have another go with the Greenwood for a while, say, from now until Yule/Midwinter/Dec 21 with an option to then extend this period if it feels right.

A part of me says I'm crazy to even think of signing up for an IDS again when I have just committed to study psychology part-time (for at least one semester and very possibly many more) besides my full-time job. So this IDS may very well result in a spectacular (or not-so-spectacular) failure.

Another part of me, however, says that I miss being committed to one deck only. That I don't need the agony of not being able to decide what deck to read with every single time I feel like getting out my cards. Especially not on top of what will very likely be a very work-intensive period in my life. It says that I didn't hesitate much when it came to picking a deck to take with me on a three-week trip recently, and that I obviously didn't miss any of my other decks while I was away. It says that I've just realized again how little I actually have thought about the Greenwood yet, and how much I could benefit from taking some time to do just that. Especially in what will very likely be a very work-intensive period in my life.

I know that I want to get back to some form of daily reading (1-3 cards).
I'm still debating morning inspirations vs. evening reflections and may do a bit of both. I will journal these readings with at least some short notes per day/card. I probably won't post any of these anywhere although they may be a starting point for other posts about the deck.

I also know that I want to finally post some of my ideas and questions about some individual cards in the Greenwood study group. If I do this for even five cards I will consider it a success.

Other than that, I'm not sure at all what shape or form this IDS period will take, and if it will even end up being very intensive or much of a structured study. We'll see.

I know I don't want to write up a whole set of bullet-pointed rules for myself which I'll only feel tempted to break. But I still wanted to publicly commit to another period of deck monogamy with the Greenwood, and this seemed to be the best place to do this.

(Disclaimer: Obviously, I will use one of my erotic decks for any RED exchange I participate in during this period. If any other deck starts calling me strongly, I might also look at it or pull a card. It seems unlikely, however, since none of my many decks has been calling me at all recently. Except the Greenwood, and even that was in a comparatively quiet voice.)

I hope this level of loose commitment is enough to justify my presence in this thread here (if not, feel free to just ignore me ).

Woo hoo! Great to have you back, Cat*! Seeing you here makes this thread feel like home again I'll add you to the list now...

My own IDS is going to have to change I think. I love my Fantastic Menagerie but it absolutely fails to warrant dedicated study time. Turns out that the trouble with wanting whimsy is that what you get is... whimsy.

What can I say? In a year and a half of Zan's Fast-Track Tarot I've owned maybe 150 different decks, including oh-so-many of the ones that everyone is supposed to want and love and be made an idol of for owning. But everyone knows as well as I do that there's only one that I love, and only one that I ever really want to be using - so why aren't I? I'm sure there's more to learn about it than I've already learned and I'd been planning to do some writing about it anyway, so...

Let's party like its 2009.

Changing myself on the list...

Posted in the first Greenwood study group thread for this round (actually even opened it). Four to go!

Zan, how funny that you come back to the Haindl just as I come back to the Greenwood! I'm very curious to see what you come up with in this round, after you've already done the stick-figure drawings, cocktail-stick swords arrangements, and gobbled up a stack of books or two on top of that. I'm sure it will be fun and inspiring to witness, however, whatever it will be!

I'm happy my presence here makes you feel at home. I'm also glad to see a few familiar faces who still/again clutch the same decks as the last time I checked (hi Wendywu!). Not that the faces themselves would clutch anything, but you know what I mean, and I'm way too tired to sort out my metaphors (or however these things are even called) today.

By the way, my card for today was the 5 of Wands, which reminded me to post about the Greenman/Greenwoman (because the same hill figure is in both the 5 Wands and the Greenman), so I've neatly fulfilled my destiny for today and will stumble into bed now.

Goodnight!

Wonderful to see you back in the GW fray, Cat*! I am sorry I missed you when you were here. The last couple of weeks before an opening don't even allow me to see my own family! LOL! Hope you enjoyed Muskoka.

In my recent Thoth study, I have been getting perspective on the elements of the GW that mirror more occult topics. The question you raise in the thread you attached above may well be sought in Qabala for a complete breakdown. The principles of duality in a conscious Universe (that sounds awful!). I didn't post it on that thread because it might be one of those IDS group ideas...

I wish I had more time to get into it, but with so many things that have come up since the show opened, I still haven't had any Tarot time!

ZAN - Put me on that list for Thoth anyway if I am not already there. A couple more weeks and things should get normal speed again.

Hi all! I think I just might join you on the IDS adventure!

A couple of years ago I participated in the "One Deck Wonder" exercise they had going. Dan/Umbrae explained at that time that the purpose behind it was to learn to read better. (or something along those lines) But that wasn't my main concern. I had been so bogged down for years in which book said what and the accompanying LWB's, that I totally lost sight of the images themselves. What's the point of having so many decks, or using different decks, if you're only going to put the RWS image over each card you pull?

So back then, my main goal was to learn to read intuitively, breaking my years-old habit of relying on what others' have said. I used LS's Universal Fantasy Tarot and had committed myself for 6 months. The first few weeks were very difficult for me, but at one point, something broke through and the deck started really talking to me in a way no other deck had. By the end of six months, I just wasn't ready to let go, so I went on for another 3 months before I ventured on to using other decks. It was one of the greatest Tarot experiences I've had to date.

But this time around, my purpose is entirely different. I appreciate what you all are doing with your exercises, studying the cards, and I'd like to do that too. But my main reason for trying to do this again is to reconnect with Tarot. A year ago (Oct. 17 to be exact), I lost my best friend to cancer, a tarot buddy I had met on MSN's group JB's Tarot for Beginners. We had never met in person as we lived literally across the country from each other, but we would spend hours upon hours on the phone together, talking about everything, not just tarot. I just haven't been the same since; it still hurts as if she just left me. But the other day when I actually did a short spread for myself and journaled it, I actually felt her presence, as if she were with me again.

I decided then that I've been going about this grieving thing all wrong. Staying away from Tarot has not made the pain fade; it's still fresh. But working with Tarot that one day made me feel connected to her again.

I'm planning on starting on Nov. 1 (or thereabouts), and I'll give myself this next week and a half to choose my deck. I still don't know whether I'll use one of Robyn's favorite decks, or one that "wins" the tarot draw , but I'll absolutely use one of her decks, whichever one I end up using. She had quite a few, so I'll have a lot to choose from.

OctoberGwen, I'm so happy that you're enjoying your BG Silver!! But instead of dropping out, why don't you just switch to your BG? Is it because you already know it very well?

Zan:

Please add my name to the IDS group for the Greenwood.

Thank you,

Kathy

Bat Chicken said:

Wonderful to see you back in the GW fray, Cat*! I am sorry I missed you when you were here. The last couple of weeks before an opening don't even allow me to see my own family! LOL! Hope you enjoyed Muskoka.

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We did enjoy it a lot, although it's a pity that we didn't get around to meet up. But I can imagine the craze before an opening, so you have my full understanding for skipping us!

Bat Chicken said:

In my recent Thoth study, I have been getting perspective on the elements of the GW that mirror more occult topics. The question you raise in the thread you attached above may well be sought in Qabala for a complete breakdown. The principles of duality in a conscious Universe (that sounds awful!). I didn't post it on that thread because it might be one of those IDS group ideas...

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I'm looking forward to reading more about this or any other of "these IDS group ideas"!

flying black kat said:

Zan:

Please add my name to the IDS group for the Greenwood.

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Yay! Company! Any ideas yet how you plan to approach your Greenwood IDS?

EarthAngel2911 said:

A couple of years ago I participated in the "One Deck Wonder" exercise they had going. Dan/Umbrae explained at that time that the purpose behind it was to learn to read better. (or something along those lines) But that wasn't my main concern. I had been so bogged down for years in which book said what and the accompanying LWB's, that I totally lost sight of the images themselves. What's the point of having so many decks, or using different decks, if you're only going to put the RWS image over each card you pull?

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As I'm reading this, I realize that my idea of an IDS is still influenced by the One Deck Wonders I've been reading about when I first came here. (In fact, I did a RWS-only period of about six months back then. Not studying anything as such, but exclusively using this deck. At the very least, it enabled me to appreciate a deck I initially couldn't relate to at all.)

A part of my motivation to use just one deck for a period of time is indeed to actually get to know that one deck on its own. With the Greenwood, I had to learn an entirely different way of looking at the Majors, and a new deck structure in general (compared to the RWS and its derivatives). At times, it didn't even feel much like tarot but rather like a non-tarot oracle. Now that I'm thinking of it, I wonder if this was part of the reason why I spent so much time doing daily draws with non-tarot decks after my last Greenwood IDS, and only very little time with other tarots. Anyhow, I think I'm better at reading any sort of oracle now, not just tarot. I like that.

EarthAngel2911 said:

But this time around, my purpose is entirely different. I appreciate what you all are doing with your exercises, studying the cards, and I'd like to do that too. But my main reason for trying to do this again is to reconnect with Tarot. A year ago (Oct. 17 to be exact), I lost my best friend to cancer, a tarot buddy I had met on MSN's group JB's Tarot for Beginners. We had never met in person as we lived literally across the country from each other, but we would spend hours upon hours on the phone together, talking about everything, not just tarot. I just haven't been the same since; it still hurts as if she just left me. But the other day when I actually did a short spread for myself and journaled it, I actually felt her presence, as if she were with me again.

I decided then that I've been going about this grieving thing all wrong. Staying away from Tarot has not made the pain fade; it's still fresh. But working with Tarot that one day made me feel connected to her again.

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What a very good reason to get the cards out again! Welcome.